It's National Online Recovery Day - And Not a Moment Too Soon!

As our nation grapples with the uncertainty, anxiety, and trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not just our physical health that’s at increased risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently communicated that, “symptoms of anxiety disorder and depressive disorder increased considerably in the United States during April–June of 2020, compared with the same period in 2019.” It turns out that mental/behavioral health is also a casualty of the war on COVID-19.

Most of you reading this know that substance use disorders are a behavioral health issue. Research indicates that two out of three people who struggle with drugs and alcohol also have co-occurring behavioral health disorders. Anecdotally, it’s always felt to me that almost everyone struggling with an SUD is self-medicating a deeper behavioral health disorder. And SUDs are serious business. About 88,000 people die as a result of alcohol every year in the United States, and almost as many die from opioid abuse. That’s without a pandemic! 

The CDC surveyed adults this past June to assess mental health, substance use, and suicidal ideation during the pandemic. More than 40 percent of respondents reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition. These included symptoms of anxiety disorder or depressive disorder (30.9%), symptoms of a trauma- and stressor-related disorder associated with the pandemic (26.3%), and having started or increased substance use to cope with stress or emotions related to COVID-19 (13.3%).

Research recently released by Well Being Trust (WBT) and the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, put the number for "deaths of despair" from alcohol, drugs and suicide as a result of COVID-19, at a staggering 75,000. 

Even prior to the outbreak, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported that 20.7 million Americans, or approximately 8 percent of the U.S. population, need substance use disorder (SUD) treatment while only 4 million people receive it. That’s 16,700,000 people, and their families, who are struggling with SUDs. 

A decade ago, I co-founded Lionrock Recovery, a pioneering telehealth SUD treatment company. We’ve been providing care online by secure video conference since September 2010. The term “Zoom meeting” is now common slang, but for years the only way people quickly understood our modality of care was when we showed them a video or got them into a live video conference. It was an exotic concept.

 Over the years, we’ve worked hard to create a world-class SUD treatment program. We’ve been accredited by the Joint Commission since 2012, and have been accepting most private health insurance since 2014. Over the years, we’ve helped thousands of people. With the arrival of the pandemic, our admissions have tripled. We now employ nearly one hundred SUD counselors and host numerous free online support group meetings to help everyone who reaches out to us.

 I’m proud of our team’s hard-won achievement, but when millions aren’t getting the care they need, helping thousands is only just a good start. Luckily, the recovery field as a whole has discovered the value of treatment by telehealth this year. Some of our field’s biggest names, like Hazelden-Betty Ford, began offering online care in 2020. This is great progress. 

In recognition of the progress we’ve made at Lionrock and at a few other companies, the entrance of newcomers, and the work still to be done, we created National Online Recovery Day, celebrated for the first time, today September 22nd. We chose this day because it falls during National Recovery Month, now in its 30th year of sponsorship by SAMHSA.  

National Online Recovery Day recognizes that getting help online is a real thing, not some futuristic dream. We and a few others plowed ahead over the last decade while many others held back, but now, at long last, offering care online is mainstream. At Lionrock, we’re thrilled to see this happen.

Now, you may notice that we don’t call it “virtual” treatment. That’s because virtual means “almost” or “not quite”. There’s nothing almost or not quite about the quality of care people can get online; it’s every bit as good as in-person. And for many people, the privacy and the convenience make the difference between getting help or not. 

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